PhD Mum

Did you know when a PhD students starts a PhD they are actually registered as an MPhil (a masters degree)? About a year in, the university will “grade” the student to assess if both the work completed and planned work for the next two or so years is achievable and merits a PhD award. If they decide it is, the student is then moved on to the PhD award. After the initial flurry of feeing like you haven’t done enough, wondering how can reading be your only job, then finally establishing a research question at about the 6 months mark, you can be forgiven for feeling lulled in to a false sense of “I got this”. At the 12 month mark, it is typically the case that you are either knee deep in or just about to embark upon recruitment and participant data. It is during this time that you are asked to upgrade. This is the first time that you will officially be assessed as a PhD candidate and as such, it is stressful! (What if they fail me?!). But the good news is, everyone who I have...

(within health/psychology) I wish someone had told me this when I first started my PhD. The key to a successful research piece: simplicity. The most basic and most often forgotten point of a study, at any level, is to have a very clear and succinct question(s) in mind that you want to answer. It sounds so straight forward and obvious doesn’t it. But it is amazing how, on a 3 to 5 year journey, you can lose sight of what your research aim is.  "If you can't describe a topic in simple terms, you don't understand it ." (Einstein)  Remember, within your study, you are not going to solve the world's problems.  I started wanting to improve end of life care for all; which in hindsight was very noble of me but completely impractical! In pragmatic terms, you have a time frame within which you need to do the study and present the results - save complexity for the reasons why you should definitely get a post doctorate post. This simplicity then pays off in dif...

It seems so surreal to be able to write about my viva - in which I had to defend my research. It means I have actually done a PhD (!), and survived the process! (I have no idea how long it will take before this sinks in). I had previously read the experience of others and doubted if I would ever make it to this point. I'm sure this is a common feeling to all PhDers - especially those with a toddler hanging off you - at so many points along the journey. Whilst it's all fresh in my mind, I thought I would write about my viva, so that if you are prepping for yours, you can read this and hopefully feel a bit more "ready"!  Pre-viva prep I had about 8 weeks between submitting the thesis and my viva. I didn't look at my thesis until 3 weeks before. This gave me a much needed break and time to think about other stuff. From t-minus 3 weeks, I read through each chapter and made notes - I made a summary of each one, looked for new research, thought about potential ...